4.5. TRANSLATING PREPOSITIONS 215
4.5 Translating prepositions
Japanese doesn’t have prepositions in the way a lot of western languages
have prepositions. You’ve already seen that quite a few particles fulfill
the role that prepositions play in other languages, but this still leaves the
question of how to say something in Japanese that in western languages
uses prepositions that are not covered just by particles. For this reason,
this final ”particles” section will cover translating prepositions.
There are two categories that preposition translations fall under.
The first is the list of prepositions that have particle or verb construction
counter parts, though since you have already encountered these in the
previous sections, these will not be treated in detail. The other category
is those prepositions that have conceptual temporal or location nouns as
Japanese counterpart. I say conceptual because some concepts that are
multiple words in western languages are the same conceptual temporal/location
noun in Japanese. These nouns will be treated in more detail and will,
where needed, be accompanied by examples.
4.5.1 Prepositions translating to particles + verb construc-
tions
English preposition Translated into Japanese using...
as in its role as indirect object
at or , depending on whether it concerns a thing or
an event.
by or , depending on whether it concerns location or
instrumentalis
despite
during particles or for strict or loose simultaneous
action, for atemporal, or verb continuative ( form)
except/save or
for Either the indirect object or the nominalising
from Either the indirect object or
of
off A resultant state form of verbs that denote ”to go off of”
since
through